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protest against the Trans Pacific Partnership in the US. Image: http://www.democraticunderground.com

“In this new international order –
or disorder – the economic, military, political and even moral
leadership of the West is increasingly challenged”

Michel Barnier, EU
Commissioner, 12 June, on the backdrop to TTIP

“American leadership, exercised
through trade, can bolster the foundation of our power – the
strength of the US economy, establish the rules of the road that
reflect both our interests and our values”

Michael Froman, US trade
negotiator, 16 June on TTIP

Political elites on both sides of the
Atlantic agree that the world is becoming a more dangerous place for
them. Their power is challenged by fast growing economies like China
and India, by mass rejection of an unrepresentative political system,
by threats to their energy supply from Russia and the Middle East.

The push for three radical trade
agreements must be seen in this context, as the quotes above show.
For years, big business has been pushing American and European
politicians to rewrite the rules of the global economy to reinforce
corporate freedom, legal privileges and access to resources. That’s
the only way, they argue, to preserve the current economic model with
its concentration of wealth and power.

Rewriting the rules of the global
economy means freeing trade talks from the strictures of the World
Trade Organisation where troublesome states like Bolivia and India
have some sway. So three new trade agreements are being negotiated:
the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) of Asian, American and
Australasian countries, the Trans Atlantic Trade and Investment
Partnership (TTIP) of the US and EU, and the Trade in Services
Agreement (TISA), a ‘coalition of the willing’ which aims for the
super-privatisation of services.

Taken together, these agreements
represent a massive attack on democracy, public provision and the
environment, in the name of transnational capital.

Race to the bottom

TTIP promises to be the biggest free
trade deal in history. At its heart is a desire to ‘harmonise’
standards between the EU and US. These differential standards are
seen as slowing down the flow of capital across our continents. These
standards also happen to be hard won protections on, for instance,
food and chemical safety, the environment and workers’ rights.

On one side of the Atlantic, US
agribusiness is lobbying hard to make sure Europe is forced to import
food containing GM products, not to mention meat which has been
through a number of disgusting practices. While the EU has insisted
it won’t water down food standards, last week, US Agriculture
Secretary Tom Vilsack, said the EU needed to “rethink its current
bans on chlorine-washed chicken and beef from cattle raised with
growth hormones.” Clearly food markets are still very much up for
grabs in TTIP.

On the other side, US and UK banks are
desperate to include financial regulation in the talks, as they
battle against Obama’s weak but clearly not weak enough, post-crash
limitations on the financial sector.

A recent leaked report shows how
control of energy is also a major element of TTIP, helping wean
Europe off its energy reliance on Russia without cutting down on
fossil fuels. A leaked paper recently showed how the EU's proposals
for an 'energy chapter' in TTIP would replace Russian gas with a
reliance on US shale gas, which is expected to boom as a result.
Fossil fuels exports would expand, the EU's reliance on fossil fuels
would actually increase and national and local government would find
it harder to set their own energy
policy or set localised renewable energy programs.

Public services are also up for grabs.
Politicians claim that there will be opt-outs for services like the
NHS. Don’t believe it. Documents leaked this month on the EU’s
negotiating position show that there isn’t a public services
opt-out, and in fact the EU are throwing 'privately funded education
services' open to US companies, as well as some water services.

European education trade union ETUCE
commented last week “With some minor exceptions, the EU is
essentially opening the door wide to for-profit American companies to
provide education from primary school all the way to university”.
For the UK, this means 'locking in' our rapidly liberalised education
and health sector.

Corporate courts

This will all be backed with the force
of a parallel legal system, which is possibly the most controversial
aspect of TTIP. These structures, known as ISDS, create an
arbitration system which US corporations will be able to use to sue
the British government for introducing regulation which damages their
bottom line (and vice versa of course).

Imagine a future government wanted to
remove private capital from the NHS. Or freeze energy prices. Or
restore public control to the railways. Or outlaw fracking. Under
TTIP, they could be landed with a law suit from big US ‘investors’
who would claim that the damage to their profits from such public
policy essentially amounts to theft.

We know this because these legal
systems already exist, in numerous other investment agreements. They
have allowed tobacco corporations to sue Uruguay for putting health
warnings on cigarette packets, and Australia from putting cigarettes
in plain packaging. They have been used to challenge a Canadian
moratorium on fracking and a German moratorium on nuclear power. They
have been used to challenge Slovakia’s public health system, and
Argentina’s energy price freeze in the midst of an economic
meltdown.

The UK government argues that there’s
no need to worry – the UK hasn’t been taken to task by such a
tribunal before. But, of course, that’s because we’ve not had
TTIP before.

We can win

Last week, MPs were firmly told by a
British government minister that they would not be allowed to see the
EU’s negotiating mandate on TTIP. So an agreement being negotiated
on our behalf by EU officials is not even open to scrutiny by our
elected representatives. We don’t yet even know if the British
parliament will have a vote on the agreement.

But TTIP is far from agreed - and it
can be stopped. Large movements have grown up to oppose the trade
offensive in the US, where trade unions, campaigners, consumer groups
and democrat congressmen have stopped Obama from getting the
so-called ‘fast track’ authority he really needs to get this deal
finalised. Recent votes have suggested that three quarters of House
Democrats have serious reservations about TTIP – not to mention
TPP.

German campaigners have collected half
a million signatures and held demonstrations against the agreement,
forcing the European Commission to hold a consultation on the
corporate tribunals aspect of TTIP.

Belgian campaigners – including MEPs
and political candidates – were placed under mass arrest for daring
to demonstrate against the agreement in Brussels in the run up the
European elections.

Here in Britain, a day of action is
planned for the 12 July, to express opposition to TTIP. It is
supported by large trade unions Unison, GMB, UCU and NUT, campaign
groups like WDM, War on Want and Friends of the Earth, and grassroots
campaigners like Occupy London and Frack Off.

The negotiators are working against the
clock. For the US this agreement must be concluded by early 2016 to
avoid running up against the presidential election. We can prevent
that happening.

That doesn’t simply mean that our
worst fears for TTIP wouldn't be realised. It will be a major victory
against the corporate takeover of our world. It will allow us to link
up with the growing movement against so-called ‘free trade
agreements’ rapidly spreading from Bolivia and Ecuador to South
Africa and India.

The defeat of TTIP would put us on the
front foot once again, strengthening the movement of the 99%.